BusCapades

For those of you who don't know, we have our house up for sale. We cashed out all of our savings, paid off all debts except the house and plan to live in a converted school bus. Drastic I know, but sometimes, that's what it takes. Stripping everything down to the bare bones and seeing the truth.

The bus isn't completely converted yet. It did have the seats removed when we bought it. We've been talking about it since before Christmas, but it became a reality when Chris saw this bus on Ebay. He drove out of state to see it with his friend Craig. We prayed hard about it over the phone and decided to buy it. He drove it home that same night from Oklahoma in a freezing rain storm. I was a bit petrified. This is a boy who'd never driven a bus before and also had eleven wrecks before the age of thirty. (If you see him limping, now you know why:)

But he was awesome, of course. Made it all the way to Craig's house in one piece.
He, Craig and I started brainstorming about things to do to it, but of course I had NO idea what that entailed. They started with welding pieces of metal underneath the bus in order to place the white water and gray water tanks. I bet you can guess what the gray water take holds, huh? 

They even let me handle those powerful air pressure tools that race car teams use to take off tire bolts really fast. It was cool. I would've made my dad proud if he wasn't so mad about us spending our retirement savings and moving into the bus.

Then they made a bed for for the master bedroom. It's a Laverne and Shirley bed (aka Murphy Bed) just like I always wanted. After sixteen years of marriage, I have my first headboard. (I always thought they were too noisy;) only this headboard is on the side and acts like a closet.

Trying to find a way to help, I offered to stain the wood. I was sitting on my knees when I scooched over and dropped the stain. It splashed up all over my glasses and INTO my mouth on account of me gasping really loud when I dropped it. YUCK! 


I have never used a pressure hose on my face before, but this seemed like the moment to try it. It hurt, but it worked:)

And I was the comic relief-teehee.

Then they put in the fittings for the toilet, (much needed) but they couldn't get the seal to fit so they could attach the thing. They needed a small, strong hand. Everyone tried, but the men's hands wouldn't fit and the kids hands weren't strong enough. Finally after an hour of trying off and on I was able to press it up into the hole and they were able to attach the toilet.  Chris was so happy when the toilet actually flushed, he was cheesin' all over the place.

I think THIS made up for the mess I made earlier.

It seems like making this bus over is much like our life right now. A crazy, exciting adventure, where we are discovering new things about each other, our kids, God, air brakes, wiring harnesses etc.

Nothing has been easy. But life has never been this good.